Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a turn based tactics role playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and Koei-Tecmo, and published by Nintendo. It is the sixteenth mainline entry in the Fire Emblem franchise. It is the first mainline Fire Emblem title to come out on a home console in over a decade, with the last one being Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on the Nintendo Wii in 2008.

Development

Nintendo originally announced that a new mainline Fire Emblem title was in development for the Switch in January 2017, but no other information for the game was given, including a name, though a tentative release date for 2018 was provided.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses was revealed in full at E3 2018, where Nintendo confirmed that the game had been delayed and would be launching in Spring 2019. In February 2019, Nintendo held a Direct presentation where they revealed a new trailer and gameplay information for Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The release date for the game was delayed once again, confirmed to be July 26th of that year. It was also confirmed that Koei-Tecmo was aiding Intelligent Systems with the game’s development. The two had earlier also partnered for the development of Fire Emblem Warriors.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses will be the first game in the series to receive a simultaneous worldwide launch. It is also only the second game in the series (with the first being the Nintendo 3DS title Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia) to have full acting for every line of dialogue in the game, including non-FMV cutscenes and scenes as well.

The game will also use full 3D character models instead of 2D sprites, making it only the third game in the series to do so, after Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance on the GameCube, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on the Nintendo Wii.

Story

Fire Emblem: Three Houses takes place on the continent of Fodlan, where three major kingdoms have vied for power and supremacy in the history- namely, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance. These three powerful nations are now at peace, while at the centre of these three kingdoms sits the Garegg Mach Monastery, which is the home of the Church of Seiros and the Officer’s Academy. The monastery serves as a nexus for all three kingdoms, where representatives from all three come to become members of the church, or to become enlisted in the Officer’s Academy as students.

The Officer’s Academy divides its students into three houses – the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions, and the Golden Deer – which each house representing and being populated by students from one of the three major kingdoms. Fire Emblem: Three Houses sees players taking the role of Byleth, who was once part of a group of mercenaries that was led by their father, Jeralt. Byleth is offered a position as a teacher at the Officer’s Academy, where they meet Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude, each of whom is from a different house and is the heir of their respective kingdoms. Soon after joining the Academy, Byleth begins seeing visions that no one else can see, of a mysterious girl called Sothis.

Gameplay

As has been the case in recent Fire Emblem titles, Fire Emblem: Three Houses will allow players to choose the gender of Byleth, and also allow players to rename the protagonist. Three Houses features the turn based tactics and role playing mechanics of previous entries, but introduces many new mechanics and elements.

During battles, commands for “Attack” and “Magic” have now been made separate commands, while a new command called “Formation” is also introduced, suggesting a higher focus on positioning and grouping of units during battles. Weapon Arts from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia also make a return, allowing players to get better with specific weapons and learn new attacks with them depending on how much they use them. Weapon durability also returns after having been absent in recent Fire Emblem titles.

There is also a new weapon type, called Fighting, which sees the character using fists or weapons like claws to incur up-close melee damage on enemy units. Three Houses also introduces a new class, called Noble, which is the starting class for various students in the Academy. Upon levelling up to a certain level, these characters can be upgraded to a base class.

Characters are also no longer restricted to certain class sets, and can pass Certification Exams to change to one of several classes. Through tutoring, characters can also learn how to use multiple weapon types rather than being restricted to a single one. Tutoring also helps with increasing stats in Magic, Weapons, Healing, as well as special unit types such as Cavalry and Armoured.

During battles, instead of every on-screen character on the battlefield being a single unit, often characters will have battalions of soldiers at their backs when zoomed in. In addition to the level of the characters themselves as well as their weapons, players will also have the opportunity to level up the battalions. These battalions can be used to trigger special attacks.

Three Houses will also see players, as a teacher at the Officer’s Academy, choosing to lead and tutor the students of a single house, including the heir of that house’s kingdom. The Academy will house several students, whom the player will interact with and build relationships with, while also training them in combat and honing their skills. The player will also send out students on missions as part of their training.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.